The

Fan Base

Most of you are probably aware of The Partridge Family Fan Club and David Cassidy Fan Club advertised on the back of the PF and DC albums and in the Laufer run teen magazines such as TIGER BEAT and FAVE in the early 1970's. These clubs gave a packet of material for a certain amount of profit. It was this David Cassidy Fan Club that at one time was the largest in history with even more members than the Elvis Presley and Beatle's Fan Clubs combined.

However, these clubs did not have the personal touch of the nonprofit clubs run by the fans themselves and they ended in 1974 after the P.F. went off the air as the money to be made was gone. Many fans also lost touch with David Cassidy after the Partridge Family until just recently.

Therefore, I'm going to give you a History of the Fan Clubs run by the fans themselves. If I've left anyone out or have any incorrect information, please e-mail me at DaidyCat@san.rr.com. I will start with the clubs just for David and then go onto the other Cassidy Clubs. Here goes:

DAVID'S GIRL'S AGAINST DISEASE OR D.G.A.D. was the first fan based club (a club started by a fan.) Started in 1972 by Jan Schulman who lived in New York, Jan put out a wonderful monthly newsletter. Jan used the club to raise money for charities that fought disease's such as Cancer, MS, etc. Hence, the name of the club. After the P.F. went off the air, David's manager Ruth Aaron's made this club the Official D.C. Fan Club for the USA. In 1980, Jan was in a car accident and just as she was getting better, she was in yet another car accident while in a taxi cab! The club was put on then put on hold.

The JUST DAVID FAN CLUB was started in May, 1974 by Tina Funk in Germany. Tina's newsletter was originally printed only in the German language. In 1975 Tina's friend Urda Voss started the Sister Club THE DAVID CASSIDY FAN CLUB with the "Da-idy Newsletter" printed in English. Tina's club was the Official Club for Germany and Urda's the Official Club for Europe by David's manager Ruth Aaron's.

In 1978 Lain Waymark started THE DAVID CASSIDY APPRECIATION SOCIETY or DCAS. This club is based in England. In 1980 Lain handed over the club to Katy Leuty. David and his family have always been aware of this club and helped it out. Katy also helped out with the UK Documentary on David which was later shown in the USA on the Bravo Station. At this time it is not certain if this club is still running or if it maybe closing soon as Katy has not put out a newsletter for a while now. Lain Waymark still helped out with DCAS. She was also the UK Representative for my fan club in the mid-80's.

I've also been informed that Jill Hanley also had a fan club in the UK. I don't know the exact dates though. If anyone reading this knows, please email me with the information. On September 20, 1987 there was a "David Cassidy Convention" in London, England which was very successful. Jill Hanley and Lain Waymark were the one's who organized this event.

THE DA-IDY FAN CLUB was started in October, 1981 by yours truly. I went by Cathy Ortiz back then. At the time I started my fan club I was not aware of the other fan clubs, as I'd tried looking to join a D.C. fan club first. I contacted the teen magazines, called David's agency and tried to contact his manager Ruth Aarons. However, Ruth had just past away. I finally decided to go ahead and start the club in the fall. I wound up meeting David for the first time in person in April 1981. David had come to San Diego, California, which is where I live to do the play "Little Johnny Jones." I was thrilled when he approved of the club and even signed the membership card for the members. For the full details of my meetings with David, go to FAN TALES on this web site.

Later that same year, I found out about the club run by Urda Voss in Germany and wrote to her. I told her about my club and sent her my packet for the fans and newsletters. Since we'd both used the name "Da-idy," I told her we must think a lot alike! Urda asked if I wanted to merge together with her club and I agreed. In 1982, Urda and I met in Calgary, Canada where several of us fans got to meet with David. Urda and I told David about our merger and he seemed pleased with the idea. We then became the OFFICIAL INTERNATIONAL DAVID CASSIDY FAN CLUB with the "Da-idy Newsletter." Since Urda had started the club first, I agreed to let her still put the newsletters together and send them to the fans from Germany. I had a column "Cathy's Corner" and I'd send current information, clippings, etc. from the USA to Urda to put in the Da-idy Newsletters.

In the winter of 1983 due to differences in style and the difficulty of distance between us (this was before computers with e-mail, fax machines, etc.,) Urda and I decided to become two separate clubs again. Urda kept the name THE OFFICIAL DAVID CASSIDY FAN CLUB with the "Da-idy Newsletter" and I renamed my club "THE OFFICIAL FRIENDS OF DAVID CASSIDY FAN CLUB" with the "Da-idy Magazine." Both of our clubs were Bi-monthy at first and we tried to put out issues on alternating months of each other. That way members of both clubs were getting a "Da-idy" each month.

THE DAVID CASSIDY SUPPORT GROUP was started in 1983 by Betty Syzdek who used to be a member of DGAD. Betty started by using a list of members from that club. In the summer of 1984 Betty Syzdek and I shared a hotel room in Kansas City to see David perform in "Jesus Christ Superstar." We decided to merge our clubs together. The first issue was put together by DCSG's Vice President Judi Parrillo. There were articles from all of us that were sent to Judi for this issue. We had photos of David's final performance in "Joseph" as well as many items from Kansas City of DC in "JC Superstar." Judi completed the newsletter and sent it out to all of the fans. However, I heard from many members that they never received that particular issue of the newsletter. For the next issue, Betty who was going to put it together became very ill and it took a long time for her to get it out. After that issue we decided to go back to being two separate clubs. Unfortunately, Betty was extremely sick for a long time and her club folded shortly after our last issue together. Betty would be well and then sick again for a long time until 2001 when she passed away. Betty was a very sweet, compassionate, and fun loving person who raised horses for a living and she left behind two adorable children and husband. She will always be deeply missed!

In the summer of 1984, Lisa Richmond who lived in Los Angeles, CA, helped Jan Schulman restart DGAD.

After a while my newsletters went to quarterly issues as did Urda's. In 1987 I put out my last newsletter and folded FRIENDS OF DAVID CASSIDY. In 1999 I put up this web site. I am currently married and I have a daughter.

Urda folded her club in the Spring of 1988. She is now happily married with children.

Tina Funk then took over Urda's club as they were sister clubs anyway and later enlisted the help of Barbara Pazmino in New York to help with the North American newsletters. Barbara was previously the U.S. Representative for Just David, Urda Voss' International David Cassidy Fan Club and DCAS. So she's had many years of experience with David and his people. Therefore, THE OFFICIAL INTERNATIONAL JUST DAVID FAN CLUB is now the longest running club for David and they put out wonderful quarterly newsletters. Please click on the name for more information on the club and how to join.

In 1988, after being a contact person for other DC fan clubs for many years, Marjon Hoogendam decided to start THE INTERNATIONAL DAVID CASSIDY FAN CLUB. The fan club is approved by David himself. The newsletter "David Cassidy Info. Bulletin" was put out about every 3 months and it was written in both Dutch and English. Just recently, Marjon stopped putting out newsletters to the fans. However, she said "I still think it's important there is a fanclub in Holland, so I decided to go on, but I will send out the newsletter by e-mail. I send out DCIB on-line once a month now and when there's very important news I will send out a newsflash. Fans are more up-to-date now and they can join the fanclub for free. The fan club is open to fans from all over the world." For more information, you can e-mail Marjon at deveney@wxs.nl or write to her at:

The International David Cassidy Fan Club
c/o Marjon Hoogendam (president)
Mendelssohnstraat 51
2901JB Capelle a/d Yssel
Holland - Europe
Tel: (0)10 - 2023164 (countrycode 31)

Labour of Love
David News Update
C/O Renee Burdick
1447 Twinridge Road
Santa Barbara, Ca 93111

Jim Salamanis & David. Melbourne, Austrailia. Sept. 2000

There is also a fan club based in Australia called "Friends of David Cassidy (Australia)." Run byJim Salamanis and Philip Clark, the club started it in 1990 when it looked like David's Enigma CD was going to be released locally in Australia. That fell through when Enigma collapsed. Still, Jim and Philip produced a number of newsletters - trying to keep David in the Australian eye. Also a non-profit club, they produced newsletters out of their own pocket and only asked fans to contribute for the cost of printing and postage. The fan club had been in hiatus since mid-1997 as Philip had some major personal issues he had to deal with first.

Around 1997, Jade's Down Under Web Site, was formed. This well done and professional looking web site has won may awards and is very popular with the fans. After David toured Austrialia in the Fall of 2002, Jade invited the FODC (Australia) club to combined forces to try and establish a combined "Down Under" presence on the web. Philip said "Our current thinking is that FODC Australia will be on-line with perhaps an occasional newsletter. We'll see how we go and keep fans posted through the web site.

I have heard of some fan clubs run from Japan but I'm afraid I don't know much about them. If you do know about them, please e-mail me about me so I can share the information.

On June 10, 2002, David Cassidy launched his own commercial fan club. You may join the "The Official David Cassidy Fan Club" from going to David's Official web site at davidcassidy.com where you can purchase a very early 70's style fan club kit complete with Puka Shells! As they used to say in Tiger Beat magazine, "Groovy baby!"

In 1977 Cheryl Corwin contacted Ruth Aarons about starting a club for David but she told her about the other fan clubs already existing for him. Instead, Ruth asked Cheryl to start a club for David's brother Shaun Cassidy who was then the brand new heart throb and in a hit series "The Hardy Boys." So Cheryl started THE OFFICIAL SHAUN CASSIDY FAN CLUB.

In 1981 CASSIDY CLASS, a club about the whole Cassidy Family was started by Susanne Stiward. In early 1987, PS THE FAMILY NEWSLETTER started which featured both Hardy Boys, Shaun and Parker Stevenson by Carol Davis and Corey Hetzer. In early 1982 they shifted the focus of the newsletter to cover all the members of the Cassidy family and gradually omitted Parker. The last issue was in early 1985.

Carol Davis and Patrick Cassidy.
Taken during his run in "Company" at the Long Beach Civic Light Opera in 1994.

Shortly after the PS newsletter folded, CASSIDY CLASS merged with another club to become THE FAMILY MAGAZINE with editors Pam Carr, Susanne Stiward and Corey Hetzer. In 1986, THE FAMILY MAGAZINE folded and Susanne continued to put out CASSIDY CLASS until around 1991(?) Susanne now has a web site CASSIDY FRIENDS.

In April 1994, Cheryl Corwin changed her club from being one just for Shaun to "FRIENDS OF THE CASSIDY'S." This club still exists today and Cheryl also has a Web Site FOR ALL CASSIDY FANS.

There is also an "Official Shirley Jones Fan Club." As most of you know, aside from being an American Icon having won a Academy Award and being in many classic musicals such as "The Music Man," "Oklahoma," and "Carousel," and of course being our "favorite TV mom" on "The Partridge Family," Shirley Jones also used to be married to David's father Jack Cassidy. Shirley is the mother of David's step-brothers Shaun, Patrick and Ryan. The whole family is very close.

David's lovely teenage daughter Katie Cassidy has also now stepped into the limelight as a singer and dancer. Although Katie does not have a "Fan Club," she does have an official web site at www.katiecassidy.org. She will later have her own t-shirts for sale on her authorized fansite www.katiecassidy.net.

There are many other wonderful web sites for David, The Partridge Family, Cassidy Family, Teen Idols and more. To see them all, please go to Links to Other Cassidy Sites.

I hope that you've all enjoyed reading about the various fan clubs and information services. I also hope that you'll all help support the dedicated fans who run them. It takes a lot of hard work, time and effort to do this. None of the fans make any money doing it and I've even heard of some who occassionally spend their own money to run their club. It is an act of love and support not only for the performer(s) but for their fellow fans. Some of the clubs also help raise money for various charities.

Also a million thanks to all the wonderful fans I've met and been in contact with throughout the years! With out support from the fans, there would be no clubs or web sites - or even any performer! As David often says, "Without the fans, I'd be pumping gas man!" So to use another expression DC often uses, "Keep Rockin'!" and perhaps I'll get to meet more of you at DC event in the near future.